BETS Students 2.0: Teamwork makes the dream work at FoalPoint!

The University of Waterloo runs a program called BETS (Bridging Entrepreneurs to Students) through the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business. PFERA Inc. has been using the BETS program at the University of Waterloo for a few rounds now and we've had a wonderful experience with their students who work with us in a co-op style for a period of 5 weeks. It is very rare to find a BETS student with horse experience but actually, their developer skills and drive to learn is often much more valuable to us. These skills are crucial to help us build the framework behind the FoalPoint software and make the technology more intuitive and intelligent in order to help breeders. The horse savvy members of the PFERA team also enjoy introducing them to a world they might not have realized even existed!

Bruce at FoalPoint HQ

As a wonderful contributor to FoalPoint, we'd like to introduce you to Bruce, one of our two BETS students from this rotation who has dived right in to the world of FoalPoint!

1. What program are you in at the University of Waterloo?

I'm in my first year of Software Engineering.

2. What career are you interested in long term?

I'm interested in becoming either a Software Engineer or Product Manager.

3. What are your main interests and hobbies?

I have been playing classical guitar and acoustic guitar for 11 years. I also draw water-colour and write short stories. My favourite sport is archery and my favourite place is Harbour.

4. What is your role at PFERA Inc?

I mostly develop new features on both the FoalPoint web and mobile applications. The rest of my time is spent updating and maintaining current features to improve the user experience.

5. What is your favourite thing about FoalPoint?

I like that all the data stored on FoalPoint is highly organized. PFERA designed a super clean and efficient way for dealing with the database. It boosts the speed of website and mobile application and it’s very helpful for developing new features.

6. What have you learned from your time with us so far?

I have learned a decent amount about web and mobile development. I got in touch with Laravel and Ionic developer frameworks which I had heard of but never had the opportunity to try before. While debugging and adding new features, I learned how programmers think and work. I feel that wonderful sense of accomplishment that comes from devoting all my knowledge and ability to my work. It’s my first co-op term and I truly appreciate everything I'm experiencing and how nice and helpful everyone is.

Thank you Bruce for your kind words and all your help with FoalPoint!